Fuelled by ideas and shaken by law and order slide, the then state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar in 2002 sat with top police officials and proposed formation of a special force comprising members from different armed and security forces.

Babar’s worries, recall officials attending that meeting, were rising crime in the capital and southeastern region, and the police alone, he was quoted as saying, were “unable to contain it”.

The police were not much interested. The department had several identical proposals for a special police-only force shelved since 1996. But Babar was persistent. He sat with the armed forces’ chiefs, who, to his dismay, also rejected the idea citing shortage of troops.

A relentless Babar in April 2003 formed a committee and instructed it to put things together to form a composite force. The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) was finally launched…